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Session 09
Game date May 7, 2011 Game notes ? XP Game log July 19th (cont.) * Owen watches over the body while the Sorensons go to look for people from the camp to recover the body. Starkweather's last expression is one of shock and terror. Owen "takes care of" his valuables. * Back at camp, the Sorensons come back and tell Moore who is upset but seems to take the news well. He sends some people back to go get the body. There's general shock in the camp. The expeditioners seem angered. The camp crew seems tired. * Russel checks the arrows. The tips have been fire-hardened and the fletching is two red feathers with one green. Unfortunately, he doesn't know whether this resembles the arrows used by the earlier attackers (or even whether the fletching style is an individual or tribal thing). Luo checks and finds that the tips were probably not poisoned, though it's hard to tell after they've been fired into a person. The Nikak have no more idea than Russel who might have made the arrow. * Dr. Russel gets some info about the attack from Lynch. He asks Moore if they want to follow up on where the lost guide went, and he deems it too risky. Clayton also asks if Moore wants continue north or east, and he mentions that they are close to the turning point. The old camp is actually a little West, but this may be a good point to turn East. He says that he'll ask the Nikak which way is safer. Owen asks if he thinks they'll stick with us after losing a third of their number. Moore hopes they will but says that we've got enough specialists in exploration to help us get by without them. They also discuss pulling back in the patrols or eliminating them since they get picked off. * Moore asks the Sorenson and Lynch if the body was disturbed since it was missing a few personal effects. Lynch mentions that he collected these and turns them over to Moore (except for a watch). * The camp crew digs a grave for Starkweather, and they hold a funeral. Sikes and the Sorensons, who travelled with him before, say a few words about him being a comrade in arms, a good hunter, and a good guy. Moore says a few good words for the man too, and he is buried. * Since it's getting dark, we set up camp for the evening. Moore gives a small speech about how he must take the mantle of sole leadership now. He tells the group that we will be heading further east to follow the trail of Fawcett and the previous expedition and tells people to get some sleep. ** The scientific part of the crew seems happier to be under Moore. Most of the camp crew is form Misk. U. and know him better and are happier to work under him. Also, they think he'll be a gentler taskmaster than Starkweather. The expeditioners are a little discomfited by the loss of a leader more like them. July 20th * Next morning, we all awake after uneasy dreams. See the dream log elsewhere. * We rise to the sounds of the jungle and have breakfast as we break up camp. Supplies are getting thin. The Nikak never appear. When people go to investigate their camp, they find signs of a fire and nothing else (save some litter from the birds and lizards they ate). * The expedition moves out without the Nikak. Days pass, and the expedition starts to slow incrementally as people succumb to more and more diseases. With less people to cut through the undergrowth, travel slows to a few miles per day. Several people are showing signs of malaria. ** Luo starts getting more people to try to chew the horrible anti-bug root. He starts to convince the camp crew to use it. ** List of the sick: Charlie Potter (assistant zoologist to the dead Griffith), Mike (the linguist), Anthony Johnson (camp crew), David Packard (team boss), Maurice Cole (camp crew), Kelly Donovan (journalist), Pierce the herpetologist. ** Some have fevers, are sweaty, and have waxy skin. Also swollen legs and enlarged scrota. (Why we need to know that, I don't know.) They have elephantiasis. ** Luo and Clayton both fail to sleep well at night and fall ill with fatigue and skin lesions. * Mike the linguist dies of yellow fever, a week after Starkweather's death. * The week after that Johnson (crew) and Pierce (herpetologist) die of dengue fever. Progress picks up a little after the three sickest members of the crew die. Some of the ones with swollen limbs can't walk any more. August 3rd * Owen, Thomas, and Clayton notice something flying around. Something long, thin, and sinuous. It tends to hover between 10-30' above the group. It's about a foot and a half long. * We warn Moore that we plan to shoot it down, and he asks why since it's not bothering anything and notes that the gunshot will draw the attention of people for miles. So, instead, we start tossing rocks at it. None of us hit it, and some people are amused at our antics but don't really care. The zoologist's assistant chucks a rock and knocks it down into the underbrush. * Owen tries to flush it out with him machete, and something darts out behind him towards Luo, who followed. Luo falls to grab it. It rushes up his arm and crawls across his head and jump into the air; it's surprisingly heavy. Clayton tries to grab for it as Owen goes to chop at it. Both Luo and Clayton see Owen swinging the machete at it. Fortunately, he doesn't impale us in the dogpile, but he does spray Clayton and Luo's back with yellow-green ichor. Apparently, it's pretty bitter tasting stuff too. * The creature is a foot and a half long. Scaly with a blunt-ended tail. It has several dozen pairs of thin, jointed legs. It also has several pairs of diaphanous dragonfly wings, a long snout and two pairs of compound eyes. ** More pictures and sketches are made. Dissection reveals an endoskeleton. * A couple of days later, the advance scouting force (Lynch, Sikes, the Sorensons, Masters, and Igor) finds a body in the jungle. It seems to be that of a Caucasian person whose chest and skull have burst open. There are a number of exit wounds at various points of the body with no entry wounds. The body cavity is fairly hollow. He's wearing the same gabardine clothes and boots we are. ** It could be one of the missing crew members. Ms. Grey, Mr. Orgelfinger, or Mr. Cartier. * Moore approaches Dr. Russel and lets him know that the body of Mr. Orgelfinger has been found. He expresses shock at the time and distance (60-80 miles) and how he must have been alive until recently (given the condition of the body). Moore is keeping the find quiet; they were only able to identify him by a diary found on the body (which has not been updated since the abduction). ** At the body, Owen finds some broken and disturbed branches in canopy above. * Over the next few weeks, Winslow (the ichthyologist's assistant) and Potter (the zoologist's assistant) die of dengue fever. Hidalgo Cruz seemed to have been recovering from a fever but is succumbing again. * Another week passes. Food has gotten thin, and rationing has been instituted. Davis dies of malaria. Morris Cole and Kelley Donovan die of elephantiasis and malnutrition. (That's all the remaining sick people.) Luo Xianqi takes the losses badly, freaks out, and then runs off into the jungle. ** Thomas manages to clonk him in the back of the head to stop him running with a can of food. Clayton tries to console him but fails to do so. * Moore has continued the tradition of burying the fallen. Morale is somewhat low. After losing more people, we pick up to the speed of 12 miles until Hidalgo Cruz collapses. There's some yelling amongst the camp crew as Earl Masters has become the de facto boss of the camp crew and keeps them moving while Dr. Green scratches his head over Cruz's condition. ** He doesn't have a fever and in fact has a lower temperature than normal. He is emitting a thick sweat. His breathing and heartbeat are slow. (Josh wants Luo to check if he's incubating strange creatures, but he has no real way of knowing how to check.) The sweat has an odd, sharp odor. No reaction to a basic stimulus test. ** Neither Luo nor Dr. Green can figure it out. Nothing to do but to put him on a sled and hope he recovers. * After a few days, he sweat begins to thicken into a milky and hard substance covering his body. His heartbeat has slowed down to one pulse every thirty seconds or so. Dr. Green can't even tell that he's breathing. * A couple of more days pass, and the cover begins to grow thicker and more cloudy, obscuring his features. August 22nd * In the evening of the 22nd, there's a disturbance in the camp. Lynch and Jijikine are keeping watch in the middle shift of the night. They hear some noises from the camp crew. Lynch is on the far side of the camp. There's several people waking up startled. * Luo wakes up to the sound of people surprised and crunching sounds. There's a lot of muttering in Spanish. Luo pulls out a flashlight to look at Hidalgo. * His body is there, but "thinner." There's an odd, man-sized creature there too. One pair of legs, two arms, shining black and orange. It has a segmented torso. A pointed face with large jaws with several rows of serrated teeth and mandibles. Two bulbous eyes that move separately and is roughly humanoid in shape. ** Igor takes a shot at it, and it turns and leaps at him. Lynch runs over and takes a shot at it. He wounds it, and it screams, waking up everyone not already awake. ** The creature grabs Igor and uses his body as a shield against Lynch, keeping a stalemate. ** Clayton moves to flank the creature, and the creature drops Igor and crouches to jump away. Clayton and Owen both plug it with good shots as it leaps away and collapses at the edge of camp. ** Meanwhile, Thomas freaks out and runs into the woods. ** Luo chucks a rock at him to stop him from freaking out. * As Clayton wonders what the hell that thing was, Luo points to where Hidalgo used to be and were there is nothing but the cast off shell of his metamorphosis. We get the doctor and the ichthyologist (last biologist standing) to look him over and figure out what he is. * The doctors check out Igor. He has some sort of puncture wound in the neck and his eyelids are fluttering and his muscles are twitching. He's in some sort of shock from some sort of toxic reaction in addition to blood loss. ** When inspecting the body of the creature, Owen notices that the color pattern of the skin of the creature resembles that of a poisonous frog we've seen before, or as he puts it, "that the Nikak told us not to lick." ** Luo throws up and tells people not to touch the thing, having gotten sick from having done so. August 23rd * By next morning, Igor is dead. We are now at less than half of the expedition force. We've lost 17 people in the jungle (in addition to those lost to poisoning). We brought 40 with us. * Luo spent the whole night hallucinating from the poison. We wake to the partially exploded corpse of the creature and the cast off shell of Hidalgo. It has a wound in the leg and two shots through the lower abdomen and one in the head. We decide to burn the corpse just in case, as Owen puts it, "It's squirming with larva." Using some extra gabardine, the camp crew tosses the thing into a fire after we bury Igor and pack up to leave. ** Before we do, Owen and Luo want to chop the thing open to see how human it was. Owen manages to mess up the head and not get a clean look at the brain, but cutting open the chest reveals pretty vertebrate-like organs. The outer carapace is hard, but there are clear indentations where ribs should be. August 27th * The expeditionary group sees a sign of civilization. There's a river with a canoe tied up to a tree next to it. A little further, and there's a clearing with inhabitants and dwellings. No males / fighters there. * The scouts head back to the group to ask Moore what to do. We move forward as a group to go greet the natives. Maybe they'll have some food for trade. * As the 26 of us breach the edge of the village, all activity stops. The women shield the kids, and some older men come out towards us. ** Owen and Luo notice that everyone in the village has a small green icon. ** Russel heads forward to greet the villagers. He notices a large, well-maintained fire pit and a large statue. There is a muted, rhythmic sound coming from that direction. Russel makes his green medallion visible (but not the pink one). * There is some sort of ritual dance going on in the background. A man runs a large ritual knife across his arm and wipes his blood across a statue in the village. It's a large green stone carving of a mythical creature combining the features of an insect, lizard, and fish. It's difficult to understand in its entirety. It has a sinuous and yet chitinous feel to it. (Different from the other creatures we've seen so far.) * The old men wait, with anticipation more than anything else for Dr. Russel to approach. He walks up and greets them. As he gets closer to the center of town, an older man greets us in English; however, the motions of his mouth and the words he says do not match. (Fortunately, all people present are hardened enough to the unnatural to take this in relative stride.) ** He welcomes us to the Perman village. I let Moore lead in negotiations. He introduces us and tells them that we are travelers seeking shelter and possibly food as we travel. ** The man introduces himself as Mirat. They do not have much to offer, but they will offer what have to offer for us on our most important journey. Their warriors are out hunting. When they return, we will feast, and they will give us a place to stay tonight. ** Moore is suspicious at how generous they are and is worried that their warriors may come back to trap us when they return. On the other hand, we could insult them by passing by their hospitality. Moore and Dr. Russel are inclined to trust them and to keep an eye out. Moore accepts the offer. * The old man calls out in a language we don't know, and women come forward with jugs to offer us a drink. He tells us that he can tell us which tribes around us are likely to be hostile. Dr. Russel thanks him, and he mentions that there are several tribes that hold grudges from when the white men came before. * Dr. Russel asks after Fawcett. There were three men who came through, two who were named Fawcett. All were sick and stayed to recover before heading east. Joan asked if he knew where they were going and what they were doing. They said they were looking for a great city to the east, and the tribe said that they did not know of the city and could not help them with their search, so they pressed on. ** He asks how many there are of us, and Moore says we have 30. Only 20 of us can stay together in the warrior's hut. The rest will have to sleep with individuals or outside. Those of us not sleeping in the quarters will sleep in the village square where the fire pit and the statue are. * Mirat says that the idol is a representation of the life force that they worship. A source of all creation. He is the Earth God and the fount of all life. * In the time before time, their god struggles with other gods of chaos who sought to dominate and destroy all things. He defeated them with his power of righteousness and after the conflict was concluded he raised all things that now life to flourish on the earth. They have many rituals and dances to praise him. There are also sacrifices of creatures that they catch to eat. Every day of living is an act of worship since he gave them that. * Dr. Russel asks if the Earth God has any rivals, but they say that the evil goddess of legend has long been vanquished. * Meanwhile Luo, is using aura sight and occult to study the statue and the people. There are some details and lines of the carving that give him sort of a headache. * Owen makes some small talk to feel them out and to find out how they hunt. They apparently have 200 people living in the village. They seem a little perplexed and curious by Owen's casual handling of his weapon. ** There are only about 60 or so people visible. Where are the other 140? * Russel acts as a translator (and doesn't a mediocre job) as Luo tries to find out about medical cures. He does eventually ask about the bug transformation, and is led to speak to their shaman. He shows him several plant and animal medicines and how to use soldier ants to suture wounds, using Mirat as a translator with Russel present. ** Luo mentions the bug transformation as a story he's heard. Mirat and the shaman have a brief dispute. The shaman claims that he has no idea what to tell us. Mirat then explains that it is probably a legend. * The drink we were given is slightly viscous brown, somewhat sweet and slightly bitter. * Towards sunset, there's a great hullabaloo as the warriors come home and are bearing a good number of animal carcasses of all sorts. (Monkeys, sloths, tapirs, etc.) There's about 50 warriors. The main bonfire (and several smaller fires) get heated up. * They roast up the food and pass it around a bird's wing after it's good and crispy. There's also plenty of good booze being passed around. Owen tries to drink in moderation. * Dr. Russel asks about the tribes rituals that Mirat said he'd show later. Mirat says that now is the right time to show "the power of those who worship the Earth God." He tells some of his tribesmen to gather something. They bring out two large animals. One is a giant anteater and the other is a capybara. Mirat pulls out a stone knife and starts dancing around chanting. Many of the other villagers gather around and start chanting. Mirat at least starts chanting something semi-recognizable as words. He slices into the neck of the anteater, which makes a disturbing noise as the blood sprays as the rest of the village cheers. * Subsequently, there's more dancing as people put the anteater over the fire as there's a motion at the edge of the village. A large number of snakes are slithering in from the edge of the village towards the center. They stop about 10-20' from the party and do a synchronized dance. ** Luo can see that the snakes are controlled somehow by either the dance or Mirat. * He says that this (the snakes) is one of the things that worshipping the Earth God can provide. The other is protection (from bats in this case). He slits the throat of the capybara, and the spray of blood over the fire turns to fireworks that split in the sky as there's the smell of burnt hair and a pattering sound of things falling. ** Owen gets freaked out and seizes up. Russel tries to console him over a drink, but fails AGAIN. Category:Session Logs